ROCK OPERA 10 Year Reunion + Voltage Live!

Austin-based filmmaker Bob Ray is bringing the old crew back together for a night of punk rock debauchery to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of his cult-legendary Austin stoner-caper flick ROCK OPERA! The tale of Austin musician Toe’s struggle to put together a tour for his struggling band PigPoke. Through selling dirt weed, stabbing people in the back and double-crossing half a dozen of the meanest sons of bitches in Texas, Toe weasels himself into a position to get his band on the road. Half stoner comedy, half suspense thriller and 100% dope ass flick.

Including performances by Nashville Pussy, Fuckemos, Witchbanger, and PigPoke as well as the music of Butthole Surfers, Ed Hall, El Flaco, Pong, Cherubs, Honky, The Crack Pipes, Titz, Pocket FishRmen, Phantom Creeps, Antebellum, Squat Thrust, El Insecto, Tallboy, and Voltage. After the screening, head over the The Highball for live performances by the newly reunion’d Voltage, Pocket FishRmen and Tia Carrera!

and here’s the press release:

For immediate release:

Critically acclaimed and award winning (and kickass) stoner-caper-comedy ROCK OPERA presents its 10 year anniversaryscreening at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar on October 10 at 8:30pm with writer-director Bob Ray

In October of 1999, the Alamo Drafthouse screened the soon-to-be cult classic stoner flick, Rock Opera, for three weeks at their original Colorado Street location. Laughter was heard, weed smell was smelt, fun was had. Chad Holt probably got laid. It was a good time by all accounts and measures.

So, come October 10, 2009, the gang is back! Writer-director Bob Ray will present the film and be accompanied by many of the original Rock Opera hooligans. The screening will feature clips from Ray’s documentary work-in-progress, TOTAL BADASS (featuring Rock Opera’s Chad Holt) as well as a selection of Ray’s short animated “CrashToons” (several of which have been featured on Playboy.com and Turner Network’s Super Deluxe). But the main event is a super-rare screening of the cult fave Rock Opera, with Bob Ray and crew hosting a post screening Q&A and an ear-gasmically sweet post-post-screening rock and roll show with bands from the flick (see below).

Rock Opera tells the tale of Austin musician Toe’s (Jerry Don Clark) struggle to put together a tour for his foundering band PigPoke. Back-stabbing, dirt weed-selling Toe double-crosses half a dozen of the meanest sonsa’ bitches in Texas to weasel himself into a position to get his band on the road. Half stoner-comedy, half suspense-thriller and 100% dope ass flick, Rock Opera is the original stoner-action-comedy (despite what Pineapple Express claims)!

Rock Opera launched Bob Ray’s “career” and netted a load of great press (including an Austin Chronicle cover story where Richard Linklater interviewed Ray). Peep some love: “Rock Opera possesses that delicious sense of the absurd for which so many indie films strive for but very few achieve. Never before has the underground Austin music scene been brought onscreen to such glorious, pot-reeking life. Rock Opera could very well be the next Austin film to inherit the low-budget crown previously worn by Slacker and El Mariachi.” –SXSW (world premiere, ‘99)

**** (four stars) “Hilarious” –Toronto Eye

“Rock Opera is damn funny.” –The Seattle Stranger

“If every pot user goes to see Rock Opera, I think you’ll have a hit on your hands.” –Richard Linklater

Bob Ray bio: Rock Opera is Bob Ray’s first feature film and the flick has screened at more than two dozen film festivals and over thirty theatrical engagements across the globe, garnering much critical acclaim along the way. Ray has since made several music videos for the likes of Nashville Pussy, Riverboat Gamblers, Fuckemos and more. In addition, Ray keeps busy with a slew of short films and animation (many of Ray’s animated “CrashToons” have screened at various fests and Ray has created animated shorts for Playboy.com and Turner Network’s SuperDeluxe.com). Ray currently is working on his second documentary feature (his first doc, the critically heralded fest fave “Hell on Wheels,” tells the Texas tale of the rebirth of roller derby (available on DVD from IndiePix!)), called TOTAL BADASS and featuring Rock Opera’s Chad Holt. Now in post-production, TOTAL BADASS will debut in 2010. Find more information on Ray and his films at: http://www.CrashCamFilms.com

After Party at The Highball: Witness a special reunion show for Austin’s most-awesome VOLTAGE and Pocket FishRmen at the Official Rock Opera After-Party at the Highball!!! Come throw down with the Rock Opera posse! And bring your balls* (or borrow someone’s) to be rocked! *(note, booties will also be rocked.) The Highball is the Alamo’s new party-down palace, located next door to their South Austin Theater.

Big Wheels: Want to know how they really roll?

If you’re curious about the historical underpinnings of Whip It’s fictional story, check out Bob Ray’s documentary Hell on Wheels, which chronicles the formation of BGGW (Bad Girl, Good Woman), one of the Austin leagues responsible for the current roller derby renaissance. (The film is on DVD, but you can also watch it for free at snagfilms.com.) After premiering at South by Southwest, in 2007, Hell on Wheels played at a number of other festivals but never found theatrical release, perhaps because a rollicking first third gives way to a slightly picayune chronicle of labor disputes and intraleague squabbles. Still, Ray captures some delightful sights, including scenes from the very first matches featuring the Holy Rollers, and he puts forth a spirited portrait of a group of sometimes difficult but extremely determined women who took a man’s exploitative idea and skated with it to feminist glory.